Thanksgiving 2014

I have always maintained that if I were ever going to cook a Thanksgiving dinner, I would not cook turkey. (Roast chicken or beef anyone?) But when it came down to planning a little meal for just Andrew and the girls I couldn't bring myself to break tradition. And that is why I bought an 11 pound turkey for four people, two of which are small children. I also planned half a dozen side dishes, including homemade rolls, and three pies from scratch for desert. 

As Thanksgiving approached, Andrew and I hoped to find another family to share our meal with but everyone we talked to already had plans. It was less than a week to Thanksgiving, and we had resigned ourselves to the idea of keeping the dinner a small family affair, when I decided to check if the missionaries had a place to go. To our shock, they had not been invited anywhere yet, and we were excited to have guests! Days later, Andrew ran into our neighbor, Doug, and discovered he too needed a place to go.  It was a Thanksgiving Day miracle! 

I made way too much food and probably didn't need to make so much of it from scratch, but the result was delicious and the company was even better. Thanksgiving it seems, is a case of, "If you build cook it, they will come!"

After sending home a huge bag of food with Doug, we still had enough food to eat leftovers for the rest of the weekend! After cooking for days, it was nice to relax. I discovered a great way to reheat leftovers. I put everything (except gravy) in a oven safe dish and warmed it through in the microwave. Then I put gravy over the potatoes and put the food under the broiler for a about two minutes to get the green bean casserole, sweet potatoes casserole and stuffing crispy again while the gravy warmed through and protected the mashed potatoes from getting burnt.

Perfection!